Death Watch (A Detective Shaw Mystery)

A particularly gruesome murder scene (a refuse oven) starts this superb crime novel and it just gets better from there. The setting is a small English town and an even smaller, grimier part of that town, where life is tough under the best of circumstances. The first death in the story leads to others, largely of vagrants and druggies. The reasons for the subsequent murders are skillfully but achingly slow to come out, as much bang is reserved for the ending of the book.What sets this crime novel aside from the average is the depth of the characters and the complexity of the plot. It reminded me very much of Ruth Rendell's writing. I will definitely try some of Kelly's other books.

I read a load of Mystery books. I prefer the British series mostly l think as l am orginally from London. I wish l could put my finger on what sets some of the best writers apart from others. What l do know that is that you can tell almost instantly that some one has it or doesn't. Jim Kelly has it. His new series (this is the second one. Death wore White is the first), has two very interesting main characters, DI Shaw and DS Valentine. One is the up and coming star the other looking for redeption. I would compare his talent to the like of Elizabeth George and P.D. James. Clear writing and clever plots. I personally prefer to read series books in order so l'd recommend Death Wore White first but both books are complete within themselves. I sure hope this is just the beginning of a long set.

I enjoyed this book. It has an involved, complex plot. I am a fan of P.D. James who also writes complex involved plots, although the similarities end there. I think Mr. Kelly has evolved favorably as a writer, and he continues to do do. I easily felt empathy for many of the characters, and especially liked the development of D.S. Valentine. Shaw's anxiety about his eyesight was done realistically too. The real art of writing is connecting with the reader, without pandering to the popular view. Valentine and I are about same age, and while I don't smoke or drink, Kelly nailed the perceptions of the mindset of men approaching sixty. I will continue to read Mr. Kelly's books as they are published.

This pair are so good it is criminal. To my mind they are easily the most enjoyable double act in police procedurals now that Morse and Lewis have disappeared. Valentine may be flawed but he can do the business! Shaw also his flaws - a different set! Once again the mysterious geography of that most continental of English cities, King's Lynn, plays a central part in the unfolding story. and once again the past is lurking in the shadows. More please!

Another winner in this exciting series. Mr. Kelly is a deft hand at complex plotting and character development. Logical, but convoluted puzzle brought to clear and believable ending. The protagonists, smart and difficult people, continue to expertly weave the complicated threads. A lesser writer would easily lose his footing, but not Jim Kelly. Looking forward to many more.

This police/crime novel has to be one of the best in the genre. Well-paced, good character development, excellent atmosphere. What makes it disturbing though is the fact that this kind of things goes on. If I say anymore though, I'd ruin the book for any potential customers. If you are expecting a thriller with cars chases and shoot-outs then forget it. It's an old-school detective novel of the highest order.

Once again, Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine must set aside their differences to investigate a bizarre murder in King's Lynn, a city on the Norfolk Coast of England. Bryan Judd, who works in the labyrinthine maze beneath the Queen Victoria Hospital, is responsible for the cremation of medical waste. On September 5, 2010, someone stabs Bryan, lays his body upon a conveyor belt and sends him into the incinerator's fiery hell. This occurs on the eighteenth anniversary of his twin sister Norma Jean's disappearance. Bryan, who shared a psychic link with her, always insisted someone drowned her. A power outage sends nearby Erebus Street (named after the entrance to Hades in Greek mythology) into chaos. Buildings are vandalized and set ablaze, including a hostel for homeless men. The homeless all fear the mysterious Organ Grinder who kidnaps them at night. During their investigation, Shaw and Valentine discover mutilated corpses of homeless men in the sewer and on a sandbar. What is the link between Bryan Judd's death and the disappearing homeless men? Also, who could have murdered the pregnant Norma Jean eighteen years ago? There are three suspects: her father Andy, a Polish immigrant neighbor, Jan Orzsak, and her career-criminal boyfriend, Ben Ruddle. Jim Kelly's "Death Watch" is a superb sequel to his best-selling "Death Wore White." "Death Watch" is just as complex and bizarre a mystery as the series' debut. Every suspect is guilty of something criminal and Shaw and Valentine must spend many sleepless nights struggling to discover everyone's secrets. This novel contains numerous crime scene investigations that are state of the art. The stern, always professional pathologist, Dr. Justina Kazimierz, returns to perform more grisly autopsies and discover more unusual clues. The one-eyed Peter Shaw is the novel's main character. George Valentine, friends and partner of Peter Shaw's late father, Jack Shaw, begrudgingly assists the younger man. They are still the odd couple of police officers. Besides their vast difference in age, they have other dissimilarities: Shaw is a lean athlete who enjoys swimming in the ocean and Valentine is an overweight couch potato who is a chain smoker and borderline alcoholic; Shaw is very healthy and Valentine speaks with a raspy voice, coughs tremendously and has difficulty controlling his bladder; Shaw is a family man and Valentine is a widower living a solitary existence. However, a thirteen-year-old unsolved case still links Shaw and Valentine and makes their association more tolerable. Robert James Mosse remains a free man after him and his gang of hoodlums strangled nine-year old Jonathan Tessier. The investigation (first introduced in "Death Wore White") was botched, resulting in the early retirement of Jack Shaw and the demotion of George Valentine. It is an investigation that may remain unresolved for several more novels in the series. This is fine with me because I look forward to reading more mysteries involving Shaw and Valentine. King's Lynn is the perfect locale for Jim Kelly's mysteries of the macabre. A port city, it has the beaches, the fog and the coldness that warns of approaching winter. It is early September and the tourist season is coming to an end, but Shaw's wife Lena is still getting some business at her beachfront store. However, spooky, creepy Erebus Street is where most of the novel's action occurs. The street consists primarily of small cottages, a tavern, a launderette, a church, a slaughterhouse and a quayside. The stone church with is arches, religious murals and cold gravestones is very gothic. When the electrical sub-station is vandalized, the entire neighborhood is plunged into a virtual hell. "Death Watch" abounds with evil characters who are too difficult to name without giving away the plot. It seems that institutions once considered safe, such as the hospital and the church, have become breeding grounds of corruption. The homeless have become extremely vulnerable. They, along with others who are deemed weak or inferior, are preyed upon and exploited by the greedy. The family unit also comes under great scrutiny. The Judds of Erebus Street are a very perverse, amoral family. Its members are all guilty of having broken the laws of men and God. Alcoholism, vandalism, murder and adultery run rampant. Bryan Judd shared a psychic link with his twin sister, Norma Jean. I wish this interesting concept could've been explored in greater detail. Fans of the "CSI" television series, English noir and Jim Kelly will greatly enjoy "Death Watch." (Because of the continuing case of Jonathan Tessier's murder, I recommend reading "Death Wore White" first.) I had my doubts as to whether "Death Watch" would be as enjoyable as "Death Wore White." However, after reading about poor Bryan Judd being thrown into the fiery incinerator, my doubts quickly vanished. As I read the proceeding chapters, the plot became even more mysterious, gripping and intriguing. I couldn't stop reading. Soon I was reading seventy-five to one-hundred pages each day. Now I'm on a watch for the next Inspector Shaw mystery from Jim Kelly.Joseph B. Hoyos

Norma Jean Judd disappears in 1992 and she is never found either dead or alive. Her twin brother, Bryan, is sure she is dead because of the psychic link they have as twins. Eighteen years later, to the day, Bryan himself is found dead in gruesome circumstances. DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine must try and unravel the strange circumstances in which Bryan met his death and in the process try and understand what is going on in Erebus Street where he has lived all his life.The investigation takes the ill-matched pair into some unexpected criminal networks with world wide links as well as local ones. In the background is the unsolved case which caused Shaw's father's early retirement and Valentine's reduction in rank. They have been told not to investigate but can they resist the temptation to right an old wrong?I found this a powerful and emotional story in which some of the descriptions are quite unpleasant though they are not over done. The squeamish may want to skip some of the descriptions of bodies as they may give you nightmares. I did feel - in spite of my dislike of such descriptions - that these were necessary to the story to convey the horror of the circumstances. The book raises some uncomfortable issues which are all too modern and certainly gave me cause to think about my own views of these issues.This book is the second in a well written and interesting series of mysteries set in and around Kings Lynn, Norfolk. The author brings this area of the country to life and you can almost smell the salt air as you read. I recommend this book and this series to anyone who enjoys well written police procedural novels with characters you feel you want to get to know.

Jim Kelly has a fascination with landscape, secrets, and how the past continues to haunt the present. In Death Watch, it's noticeable that the quality of the writing itself is very good (and he acknowledges the support he's had in achieving this in the afterword), but the plot is way too complex, with a multi-layered density that becomes more than a little confusing. Central to the story is the issue of organ donors and organ harvesting, a theme that clearly lends itself to crime writing as Peter James has also been inspired to use such a theme in one of his mammoth Roy Grace novels.Kelly is a more subtle writer than James, but he over-works plots and that makes sustaining the tension difficult, By the time of the unlikely conclusion to this one, you're almost past caring because Kelly has chucked too much at the reader. Interestingly in terms of characters, Shaw is much less likeable than his care-worn, see it all before sidekick Valentine, and so it doesn't help that the book is essentially carried by a lead character you're not much inclined to care about. Kelly admits to being heavily influence by the works of Dorothy L Sayers, so it's possible that some of her labyrinthine plotting devices have rubbed off. Readble enough, and a nice sense of atmosphere pervades chunks of the book, but the over-complex storyline and some quite grisly descriptions of death and decay won't be to all tastes.

I have read one of this authors books before and enjoyed it enough to try another. A police procedure novel set in a different sort of area.....the bleak East Coast of the UK. And that sums it up really.....the story is bleak, the landscape is bleak, and the characters are bleak. And there are lots of characters in this book, which tends to make it a tad complicated at times. A bit far fetched too, but I can accept that in a novel. I could not, however, relate to the characters. Not one had a single redeeming feature, including the police officers. It was actually a very depressing read....one which will make avoid that part of the UK at all costs. That said, it was well written, with good atmospheric descriptions, especially in the furnace room and the boat. I nearly gave it four stars but it was too bleak a tale!

Mr Kelly can write but I echo the description 'over engineered' used by a reviewer here. Almost too much going on and a truly irritating obsession about an old crime inadequately dealt with by the hero's father. He does paint the area badly, I hardly recognised it! Definite talent ,needs to simplify a tad.

Another Shaw and Valentine mystery/murder novel which sees the pair solve a case which in reality dates back 18 years. I love these two characters, Shaw a really dedicated cop who lives in his father's shadow and Valentine, a chain smoking hardnosed cop who at times, is belligerent and resentful of his past demotion which was linked to Shaw's father. Jack Shaw and Valentine worked a previous case where they were accused of contaminating evidence and thus Valentine was demoted and Jack Shaw was pensioned off. I didn't think this book was as good as Death Wore White but I like the way Mr Kelly plots his stories with lots of red herrings, clues and good old fashioned detective investigating. We always get there in the end but how we get there is what's intriguing. Well done Jim, a good read, thank you.

Jim Kelly's books go from strength to strength in character-building and complexity and his writing is to be much admired. I was put in mind of Dick Francis reading this one - he has obviously done his research into the crime that drives this plot but allows it to filter in rather than deposit it. It is an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable example of the so-called clue-led English type of detective novel.

Since picking up a Jim Kelly book a couple of years ago, I've managed to read them all. Personally, I think he is more than a match for Peter James and I am only surprised that Kelly's books are not more widely marketed.With respect to his latest offering, it is another intriguing book, with multi-faceted characters, dark sub-plots galore, and a satisfying ending. I can see why it is not everyone's cup of tea, as it exposes hidden social commentary, but if you are a fan of taut British thrillers by people like Simon Kernick and Peter James, you should enjoy this one.

This was a reading group "read". We discovered it was the second book about some of the characters, so perhaps it would have been better to have read the first one before reading this.However, I did not enjoy it at all, too many characters, all with a plethora of stories, which was very confusing and trying, keeping up with who was who and who did what, and so on. However eventually some of the stories linked up. But, I did not like any of the characters, nor any of the settings,and was not grabbed by any of it really. It felt like slow dark torture.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. It was torture waiting to find out what would happen next. To me this is a great example of a police procedural - the case builds up piece by piece, the plot twists as more information is revealed and, of course, everyone has secrets they are unwilling to tell the police. Maybe the characters aren't finely drawn but they are sufficient for such a plot driven narrative. I very rarely give 5 stars but I thought this book was excellent and deserves them.

First read by this author, not my usual, but enjoyable. Takes a bit of time to get going but worth the effort

I was doubtful about this at first, as it was on a "special" Kindle offer, and that is not always a good recommendation. However, I was pleasantly surprised. It is well written, well researched, fast moving and the characters are well drawn. I did have to go back and double check the plot at one point, as it got rather complicated and I had lost track! Perhaps a bit gruesome in parts, but good light reading to punctuate the heavier stuff.

As with the other books I have read by Kelly, there were many twists and turns in this second of the Shaw/Valentine series.Kelly is such a good writer. His characters and location descriptions are lively and realistic. I shall definately read more.

I enjoyed this book but I have always enjoyed what Jim Kelly writes. However, this wasn't quite as absorbing usual. And at times the less significant characters were confusingly many. Shaw and Valentine are good characters but I would be happier if they were less at odds with each other.

This is only the second Jim Kelly book I have read and it certainly won't be the last. Although there were a lot of characters (which was confusing to start with) everything became clearer and the links between them very good. I couldn't put the book down - looking forward to reading the next one.

Found this book a bit stop-start, not sure the two story-lines were a good mix; the plot lacks credibility and the characters are a bit one-dimensional, but overall an absorbing enough read and still enjoyable if you are a fan of contemporary police dramas.